UPDATE:
The overall outcome of yesterday afternoon is that the car is not fixed.
However, we did manage to rule out a fair few bits which, in my eyes, made the time spent on the car worthwhile...
1. Tested all coil packs with spare units.
2. Swapped ETM's. This is the interesting part as my car started and ran with James ETM and therefore would suggest that these units do not need any kind of re-flash or reload. Albeit the running problem remained, so we can probably rule the ETM out as being the issue, as my car behaved this way prior to my ETM overhaul, after my ETM overhaul and with James ETM too... but it started and drove which possibly puts that point to rest.
3. Swapped MAF's. Wow, those anti tamper screws, I really love those things
anyway, swapped them over and no change.
4. Swapped one of the air sensors from the intercooler to throttle body pipe - admittedly it would've been a better idea to swap James whole pipe onto my car but this is in hindsight. One thing we noticed was, the sensor pulled out of my boost pipe very easily, almost too easily, but James removed his with great trouble (as you would imagine for a sensor that's meant to be air tight). Anyway, fitted this and gave it a good bit of movement while the engine was running but it didn't really make any difference at all.
5. Got part of the way to swapping the valve/solenoid/sensor that is attached to the side of the airbox. Sadly, beaten by the smell of steak and chips on the dinner table (red wine sauce, mushrooms, garlic bread). So we didn't manage to get this swapped over although was interesting to have a mess with those vac pipes and it seems they are a bit worn but no splits or cracks - I don't think anyway?!
Across the whole of our test the car threw no fault codes. Great. To add insult to inury, after the day was over I reversed my car off the driveway to let James off and as I took the car down the road opposite my house, gave it 'WOT' and the car took off like a rocket. There was me thinking 'wow maybe something has fixed itself'... spun the car round and drove back and it began to splutter again, pulled onto the driveway and it cut out. So we know it's intermittent which probably doesn't help matters. When we test drove the car throughout the day, James said it felt like some kind of boost problem as at times it seems to pull then it stutters... pulls... stutters and feels very on/off when driven. Air leak? Who knows!
Massive thanks to JamesT5 who cam two hours from Wales to West Mids to help me out. He's a good person to know.
I think I've reached the end of the line for what I can do and the time I can spend on the car. With running my own business and currently house hunting, I haven't got the time or energy to be bent over with my head stuck inside the engine bay. So it's off to a Volvo specialist maybe this week or next...
...all I know is it needs sorting out quickly, my work van doesn't have heated seats!
Thanks Ed
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